Wagga City Council to tweak Dunns Road upgrade plans after missing out on $1.4m grant

The council's application for funding from the federal government's Black Spot Programme was rejected, meaning changes must be made to the $8.3 million overhaul of Dunns Road.

Silas Darby, the council's associate director of projects, said they were expecting to receive black spot funding when designs for the new roundabout at the Holbrook Road intersection were put together.

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"We were hoping for black spot funding in the region of about $1.4 million and that would have allowed us to do chicanes in the road ... to lead up to the roundabout," he said.

"Obviously we don't have that facility anymore ... so we're going to have to do the best we can with the money we've got."

The council has already begun the first stage of the project, which includes the sealing and re-sealing of five kilometres of road.

The final two stages include upgrades to the turn off at the Olympic Highway and the construction of a new roundabout at the Holbrook Road intersection.

Mr Darby said the last two stages are still expected to begin later this year, despite the need for slight changes to the plans.

"We're looking at really poor weather for the next couple of weeks which gives us a bit of time to chat ... and get the information we need," he said.

Mr Darby said the council has not received any explanation for why the application for black spot funding was rejected.

"It's all a bit of a surprise because we were led to believe it was a good application and things looked particularly promising for its award," he said.

"Which is why we took the chance that we did in terms of the design - in hindsight perhaps we shouldn't have done that."

Transport for NSW, who administered the program in NSW on behalf of the federal government, had not responded to The Daily Advertiser's request for comment at the time of publication.

The federal government has already committed $5.8 million to the project.

In light of the grant application rejection, councillors voted on Monday night to turn down the four tender applications which had been received for the project.

Mr Darby said this was so the council could then renegotiate downgraded designs with the applicants.

"Obviously we will negotiate with the lowest tender ... because that's the fair and reasonable thing to do," he said.

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